"He says the organization has been operating 'almost like a terrorist group, doing almost impossible things' for three years. Now, he says, it needs to be managed 'more like Microsoft'."

Negroponte, if you recall, went on a bit of a tirade against Intel, which he accused of sabotaging OLPC's efforts with its own Classmate PC. Unfortunately, all the tit-for-tat sort of got in the way of the charitable efforts both groups set out to accomplish -- even if both laptops proved to be valuable research tools for lowering the cost of the PCs, as well as seed Third World countries for future computing efforts.

In recent weeks, OLPC reorganized into four operating units, including technology, deployment, market development and fund-raising, and administration, BusinessWeek reported. So is Negroponte's OLPC legacy just another indication that hardcore tech guys should not run businesses? Or do examples like Sun and Microsoft poke holes in that?

Image: BusinessWeek/Adam Nadel/Polaris